


The Sand at the Bottom Half of the Hour Glass

by ThoseWhoFavorFire



Series: Just One Mistake (To Dust or To Gold) [5]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Babies, Clint POV, Dumpster buddies, F/M, M/M, a small aside, clint nat steve and matt can all be friends, post-AoU, post-season one of Daredevil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 22:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4496529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoseWhoFavorFire/pseuds/ThoseWhoFavorFire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em> “They say we are what we are/ But we don't have to be/ I'm bad behavior but I do it in the best way.” </em><br/>Title and idea inspired by Immortals- Fall Out Boy<br/>Aside for the series, but it can be read on it’s own out of context I believe.<br/>In which Matt and Clint meet…in a dumpster (because where else would they meet?) and Natasha comes to pull Clint’s ass out of the dumpster (AGAIN) and meets Matt as well.<br/>Lots of Clintasha. Obviously the implied Steve/Matt as well. Clint POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sand at the Bottom Half of the Hour Glass

**Author's Note:**

> Hello my lovelies! It has been ages, literally forever since I’ve updated and for that I am ever sorry. It appears I will actually be less busy during the school year (go figure). I've wanted these three to meet for awhile anyway, and this nice little piece is a great break from the serious stuff. Besides, I had to try my hand at the dumpster buddies.

**Clint Barton**

It was cold. Very cold.

That wasn’t the worst part though. No, the cold he could deal with. The cold he was _trained_ to deal with.

The smell on the other hand… that was probably the worst part. Even that faded to the background after the first couple of minutes though. It wasn’t every day that one woke up in a dumpster but, then again, it wasn’t exactly a foreign thing to him at least. In fact, with the craziness that had been going on recently, it was even pleasantly familiar.

The dumpster in Hell’s Kitchen welcomed Clint Barton like an old friend.

Natasha often claimed that Clint must _enjoy_ hanging out in dumpsters with how frequently he was thrown into them. It wasn’t exactly something that happened on a weekly basis, Clint was relatively competent at his job, but it did happen more than once. In fact, it to him more than most and one couldn’t repeatedly go through something like this and not expect to get teased by Natasha.

Once the throbbing of his head finally dulled, he made his protesting muscles move ever-so-slightly so that he could activate his distress signal. With the knowledge that a very pissed off Russian would be on her way to berate him, Clint distracted himself by digging through the dumpster to look for his hearing aid. After a few minutes of fishing around and several curses, he was able to click the device into place. It was specifically designed to allow him to fight without it falling out, but when he took a direct hit to the head it had disengaged and it had fallen out into the dumpster when he was tossed in there. Despite what Tony may have believed, technology was far from infallible (as if Ultron hadn’t been proof of that already).

Clint considered leaving the dumpster and finding his own way back home, but Natasha was probably already headed for him. Besides, he was in enough pain to dissuade him from moving and he was positively _exhausted_.

So, instead of leaving, he settled back into the dumpster with a groan.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed by the time he woke up again. There were footsteps approaching the dumpster. Clint stayed silent, listening intently to the two sets of footsteps as he stayed completely still. There was a dragging sound, and Clint prayed that they weren’t hauling garbage that would, with his luck, get thrown right on top of him.

No, instead he heard the grunts as the two men lifted something significantly heavier than a normal load of trash and tossed it into the dumpster right next to Clint.

Clint blinked in surprise when the “it” that was thrown into the garbage turned out to be a _“he”_. The man groaned, clearly still unconscious, as the two sets of footsteps left the vicinity.

As Clint waited for the men to be completely out of earshot, he examined the figure in the dim lighting of the sketchy Hell’s Kitchen alleyway. It didn’t take long to figure out who he was, but it came as three quick realizations.

  1.      This man was the Daredevil, also known as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
  2.      This man was Matthew Murdock.
  3.      This man was Steve Rogers’ _boyfriend_ (despite what Steve might deny).



So, of course, Clint did the only logical thing…he kicked Matt to see if he could wake him up.

( _Steve is going to kill me._ )

The man sharing the dumpster with him woke with a start, and Clint’s thank you was a sharp jab to his side. Clint winced, “Hey, you’re the one encroaching on _my_ dumpster. No need to hurt me, I have plenty injuries already thank you.”

“Your dumpster?” Matt responded, still groggy.

“Finders keepers, I was here first,” Clint grumbled.

They lapsed into silence as both men decided how to handle the situation.

“Of all the dumpsters in all of Hell’s Kitchen, of course the Daredevil gets thrown into mine,” Clint started, sarcasm tinting his voice.

“Of all the superheroes I could share a dumpster with in New York City, of course I end up sharing it with the sarcastic archer avenger.”

“Oh so you recognize me.”

“It’s hard to mistake the guy running around New York City with an archaic weapon.”

“At least my outfit doesn’t have horns.”

“At least I don’t hunt down criminals in your part of the city.”

“At least I’m not dating Steve Rogers!”

Matt was shocked into silence at that comment.

( _Real smooth Clint. Great way to make friends._ )

"At least I don't get thrown into dumpsters. What the hell are you idiots doing?"

Clint blinked up in surprise, having been too consumed with his petty bickering with Matt to notice that his girlfriend had arrived on scene.

Since Matt didn’t speak up, Clint shrugged sheepishly, “Makin’ friends, Tash.”

She rolled her eyes, “Clearly. I hope you are happy Clint: I left a warm bubble bath, a nice bottle of top shelf vodka and a good book behind to pull your ass out of the dumpster _again_.”

Clint sighed, “Sorry Tash, wish I could say it wouldn’t happen again but…”

“But it will,” she sighed, turning to Matt “You doing okay Mr. Devil of Hell’s Kitchen? I thought getting thrown in the dumpster only happened to idiots like this guy here.”

Allowing her to pull him out of the dumpster with some maneuvering, Clint made a noise of protest at her comment. When she raised an eyebrow, he decided it was one of those times where she was right and he was _actually_ being an idiot with zero self-preservation instincts.

“I’d be doing a bit better if I wasn’t in the dumpster,” Matt sighed, clearly still at a loss about the whole comment about him dating Steve.

It didn’t take too long for Natasha to get Matt out of the dumpster (she had a lot of practice). While Clint leaned against Natasha for support, Matt chose to lean against the nearest wall.

“How much do you know?” Matt grumbled.

“…would everything be the wrong answer?” Clint responded. For that, he earned a light elbow from Natasha to his side. If he hadn’t been injured, it wouldn’t have hurt. However, since he was, he mumbled unhappily.

The pain Clint was in seemed to illicit a small smile from Matt but it quickly faded.

“Did Steve…?”

Natasha shook her head, “No, he didn’t tell us. Clint and I kind of…snoop professionally. Sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves. Now…since we do know…would you mind letting us come back to your place? You could use some patching up and this dumbass could too.”  
Matt sighed but nodding, grumbling something about meddling assassins as she started heading in the direction of his apartment without any directions from him.

It didn’t take long to get back to his apartment, and they exchanged very few words between the dumpster and their destination.

“Make yourself at home,” Matt said sarcastically as Clint plopped on his lumpy couch. He pulled out the medical kit, handing it to Natasha.

Natasha offered him a small smile, “Thanks Matt.”

He grumbled something about the mask being pointless and disappeared into another room.

Clint grinned up at Natasha as she surveyed his injuries, “Hey, on the bright side, my escapade lead to us meeting Steve’s boyfriend. You’ve been dying for an excuse.”

She shook her head, “I suppose so, not on the best of terms though.”

“Something is better than nothing.”

Natasha just sighed and ignored him for a moment, taking care of a gash on his side. Clint leaned in when she got close enough and caught her lips in a quick kiss, “Come on Tash, you can’t stay mad at me. I’m real sorry.”

“Mhmm,” she chuckled, “Don’t think you’re off the hook though. You’ll have to make it up to me later.”

There was a devious glint in his eye, “Of course, anything.”

( _It isn’t a lie, she knows I’d do anything for her._ )

She continued to patch him up, and Clint rested happily on the lumpy couch with the knowledge that she wasn’t _actually_ mad at him.

Matt came out showered and dressed more comfortably a few minutes later.

“Let me take a look at your injuries,” Natasha insisted and he complied with only a small round of protests.

It wasn’t until _after_ the two dumbass men she rescued from the dumpster were cleaned up that the alcohol was brought out. Clint realized that, as he had hoped, once Matt got over the fact that they knew his identity he was much more talkative. He wouldn’t talk all that much about Steve, but Natasha and Clint talked about Captain America plenty. It even seemed like Matt enjoyed the arsenal of interesting, funny, or sometimes embarrassing stories of Steve’s that they had amassed while being his friend and teammate. Matt and Clint commiserated over being repeatedly thrown in the dumpster, and Natasha enjoyed poking fun at them for it.

“Hey Matt, I’m home. Sorry it’s so late, I-” Clint turned to see Steve stop in his tracks as he spotted the three of them sitting around. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, seemingly at a loss for words.

“Ah Steve, I found my boyfriend _and_ your boyfriend in the same dumpster. Don’t worry, they are both fine. It appears their lack of self-preservation skills and their incredible stupidity is completely incurable, though we can hope they’ll grow out of it.” Matt and Steve both turned a bright shade of red at the mention of the word _boyfriend_.  
“Me? Stop being a dumbass? Never. Small world though, right? Who would have thought? Two superheroes getting thrown in the same dumpster.”

All in all, it ended up being a decent night. Natasha and Clint got to tease Matt and Steve, Natasha and Steve got to team up and lecture their partners on proper dumpster usage, and the three of them all got to complain about Tony and the registration act.

Now, if only Clint could figure out how to make sure Steve didn’t kill him later for talking to his boyfriend and complicating things even further. Then again, Clint regularly diffused Natasha, how hard could it be?

( _Hint: Very hard._ )

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to give you the whole next part tonight, instead I am giving you a little aside to tide you over. I’ve w  
> Hope you guys enjoyed this. I got to do some Clintasha, which I feel there is never enough of. I like Clint, Nat and Matt becoming sarcastic friends.  
> The song Immortals really brings forward how all of these superheroes, especially Matt, go out and risk themselves. They aren’t invincible, despite what they pretend, hence the line “We could be immortals, just not for long.” The line “I try to picture me without you but I can’t” made me think of Steve and Matt because they try so hard not to be together.  
> Sorry if you see any mistakes, I attribute it to the late hour.  
> You can blame Gunmetal_Crown for this, she was the one that suggested I do dumpster buddies as an aside. Speaking of her, if you like the idea of Assassin!Karen (which, why wouldn’t you?), you should totally check out her fic series “a woman who calls herself Karen”.  
> Thanks for sticking with me guys!  
> Up Next (for realsies this time): Fall to Your Knees (Bring on the Rapture)


End file.
